No need to worry. Here I am going to share some reasons why your website is flaunting this error and how to fix CloudFlare error 522

If you visit a website which is using CloudFlare, it might give a server Error 522: Connection Timed Out response.

This happens because the Website hosting servers are not able to respond to the queries made by CloudFlare. This mostly happens if the website is hosted on Shared Hosting Servers.

Before getting started with how to fix error 522, let’s us understand how CloudFlare works and what does error 522 means.

CloudFlare is one of the best Content Delivery Network that aims to make your website load blazing fast. Here’s how CloudFlare works:

Suppose you visit a website ‘Cooltips.com’ which is currently not using any CDN. The actual process will be that first the visitor’s browser would lookup into the DNS and then send requests to the web servers of the website to serve the files requested which will consume bandwidth and might take time to respond.

But in case the website is using a CDN, CloudFlare in my case, the web traffic is routed through a strong global network and serve the delivery of the pages from the data center nearest to the visitor. To save your hosting bandwidth, CloudFlare caches the static website stuff , such as images, JavaScript, CSS files which are served to the users directly from the nearest data center which makes your page load extremely and save your bandwidth. Below I am going to share the exact methods for error 522 connection timed out solution.

CloudFlare also blocks bots and other crawlers to access your website which saves your bandwidth and deliver the best experience to users.

I think you got a good clue how CloudFlare works. Now, let’s get started with how to solve error 522.

How To Fix CloudFlare Error 522

When you receive a 522 Error on a website, it is the server side error and CloudFlare is not to be blamed. It means CloudFlare is not able to establish a connection with the web servers. If the servers don’t respond to the queries within 60 seconds, the connection gets timed out and the website flaunts Error 522.

Uh…oh.. Now, what’s the fix? 🙁

The fix is simple. You need to make your servers respond to the queries within 60s. But how?

In the case of shared hosting, your resources are shared and servers are too busy responding to other queries as well. There is nothing ‘Unlimited Space’ in shared hosting as servers has their limits and you can consume the space in those limits.

Otherwise, they might send you an email regarding the over-consumption of the bandwidth and might take down your website too.

There is not flexibility in the case of shared hosting as the resources are shared equally and in-case you get a high traffic on specific events, your site will not respond and would deliver an Error 522.

Hence, the fix it >> To reduce the bandwidth consumption and make your website respond to CloudFlare queries within 60s.

Arghh… PLEASE ELABORATE! 🙁

If your website is flaunting Connection Timed Out Error 522, then you need to contact your Hosting Company and they will fix it out. You can also Optimize your database from your cPanel but if you are not a technology geek, your hosting company will do it for you.

Secondly, to avoid further connection timed out errors, follow the below-given ways:

1. Compress Images

Optimizing images on your website will lower the server load and reduce your bandwidth consumption and helps in faster delivery of these files. If your website is powered by WordPress , then you can use WP Smush Plugin to compress your images as you upload them.

If your website is not hosted on WordPress, you can use Advanced Jpeg Compressor to compress and remove metadata for fast loading of images.

2. Use Cache Plugin

The first plugin I installed while setting up my WordPress website was W3 Total Cache. It optimizes the theme CSS which cleans the unwanted breaks and codes in the file and ensures faster loading of pages. An alternative for W3 Total Cache is WP Super Cache.

3. Use JetPack Plugin

It loads the images in your posts from the WordPress CDN after caching and delivering through their blazing fast network which reduces the load on your web servers and make your website load fast. Isn’t it amazing? 😉

4. Use Lazy Load WordPress Plugin

The images will be loaded as the user scrolls down. This helps in reducing bandwidth consumption and helps is boosting performance. Download here for free.

5. Delete unwanted plugins

Sometimes I forget to delete the plugins that are of no use now and keep installing the new ones. But the old plugins keep consuming the bandwidth and boosts the server response time and in many cases, this has been a primary reason for the Error 522: Server Timed Out response.

Or… sometimes the useful plugins can also consume a lot of bandwidth which might be causing slow page load times and that need to be monitored using P3 WordPress Plugin and deactivate the plugins causing server load issues.

Conclusion

Here you learned about the Error 522, its cause and its fix. In case you still have any query, feel free to drop a comment below.

And… Do let me know if I have missed any Error 522 fix or I was wrong somewhere!